STATEMENT OF FAITH
April 2022
Statement of Faith
God is the Creator of all things and created humanity in God’s image. God is complete, holy, and present. God desires an intimate relationship with God’s creation, not out of necessity but out of sacrificial love. The love that God has for creation is unconditional, consistent, and unending. God is fully experienced through the three persons of the Trinity: Creator, Savior, and Intercessor. Each of the Trinity is fully God, neither being lesser than the other persons.
Jesus is completely God and completely human. Being that sin separated humanity from God and that humanity falls short of the glory of God, it is through the abundant grace of Christ that we are brought into right relationship with God. Jesus came to reveal God’s love and truth to the world to bring humanity back into a loving relationship with the Trinity. Every action that Jesus made was an act of redemption. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are brought back into the family of God. Jesus’ actions of healing, forgiving, and teaching, were all opportunities to help humanity witness and experience the fullness of God’s love and desire. Jesus is the ultimate example of how to live life as one that brings about more of the Kingdom in everyday life.
The Holy Spirit is the advocate for God with humanity today. Guiding the people of God by revealing where God is already at work in the world; the Holy Spirit vibrantly encourages the church to seek justice for the oppressed, give hope to those in destitution, and love the unloveable. The Holy Spirit reveals to humans their faults and shortcomings and inspires the Church to instead live a life that reflects the love of God that was seen in Jesus.
The church is a community of believers that are interdependent with one another for training, growth, enrichment, fellowship, and hope as they follow the teachings of Jesus. The Church seeks to spread the Good News to those near and far, sharing the story of Jesus to those that are open and in need of God’s love. The Church is the launching pad for believers to go out into their neighborhoods, communities, and the world as advocates for faith, hope, and love.
The Holy Scriptures are divinely inspired and imperative to the life of a believer. They reveal God’s nature, a narrative of reconciliatory love, and the eschatological hope of being with God at the end for humanity. The scriptures reveal God to God’s believers through the different letters, narratives, wisdom texts, and poetry. The Old and New Testaments together tell the story of the people of God who are imperfectly navigating the ins and outs of life as best they can. The scriptures give us guidance and warnings about how to conduct ourselves in the world. The gifts of the sacraments, Baptism and the Eucharist, are gracefully given to humanity through the scriptures. These visible expressions of invisible realities help orient the Church around God’s unconditional love and desire for relationship.